However, former Laker Cedric Ceballos said that at the beginning of the 1996-97 season, he, O'Neal, Bryant and Corie Blount used to have freestyle battles on the plane and Bryant often came out on top.

"The stuff that he put out, he was real commercial," Ceballos said of Bryant's rapping. "It wasn't the real Kobe."

Ceballos said that behind the scenes, Bryant's rapping style is much different.

"He's got a Wu-Tang Clan-like style," Ceballos said.

"Kobe's a nice guy; he doesn't like to let everbody know that, but he's got some mean lyrics."